Preliteracy Skill Development - Phonemic Awareness
(from Lesson Plans for Toddlers and Preschoolers)
This strategy was inspired by one of my toddler sessions this week. Mom was reading “Goodnight Moon” and the child filled in “hush.” I suggested that mom pause before the closing rhyme on each page to see if he would fill in any other rhymes. We were both surprised when he did almost every one with no specific visual cues other than the open book.
This of course sent me down the path to remind all of you about the importance of building preliteracy skills.
Let’s review some of what we have already discussed. First, “there is substantial evidence that “hearing” is the most effective modality for the teaching of spoken language, literacy and other cognitive skills.” (Robertson, L. 2009, Literacy and Deafness: Listening and Spoken Language.). Second, hearing children learn to read a language they already have. Third, young children will develop phonemic awareness through oral language games, songs, reading books with repetitive patterns and hearing nursery rhymes and chants and fingerplays.
I have found through many years of professional practice that children with atypical hearing are often late developing an “ear for rhyming” and that the skills must often be directly taught. Seeing this child who is just turning two complete this rhyming task so successfully motivated me to challenge you!
Assess your child’s ability with rhyming using the following strategies:
(from Lesson Plans for Toddlers and Preschoolers)
This strategy was inspired by one of my toddler sessions this week. Mom was reading “Goodnight Moon” and the child filled in “hush.” I suggested that mom pause before the closing rhyme on each page to see if he would fill in any other rhymes. We were both surprised when he did almost every one with no specific visual cues other than the open book.
This of course sent me down the path to remind all of you about the importance of building preliteracy skills.
Let’s review some of what we have already discussed. First, “there is substantial evidence that “hearing” is the most effective modality for the teaching of spoken language, literacy and other cognitive skills.” (Robertson, L. 2009, Literacy and Deafness: Listening and Spoken Language.). Second, hearing children learn to read a language they already have. Third, young children will develop phonemic awareness through oral language games, songs, reading books with repetitive patterns and hearing nursery rhymes and chants and fingerplays.
I have found through many years of professional practice that children with atypical hearing are often late developing an “ear for rhyming” and that the skills must often be directly taught. Seeing this child who is just turning two complete this rhyming task so successfully motivated me to challenge you!
Assess your child’s ability with rhyming using the following strategies:
- Establish joint attention.
- Experiment with fingerplays, chants and rhyming books and chart your child’s success with each one.
- Use auditory closure pausing before the closing rhyme in each phrase.
- Provide wait time for your child to respond.
- Respond with enthusiasm when your child completes the rhyme.
- Take notes on the results. If your child is having difficulties, we will discuss these one-on-one and decide how to build this basic skill in phonemic awareness.